A wide variety of architectural and interior design projects require intricate, non-linear cuts in flat, plastic materials. This is especially true in the field of floor coverings where it has become desirable to apply custom designs to flat, plastic materials such as linoleum and sheet vinyl. Designs may be composed of numerous shapes, lines, and colors. Demand for complex designs has resulted in a concurrent increase in the cost, equipment, skill, and labor necessary to implement such designs.
When applying a design to a floor covering such as linoleum, it is often desirable to apply two or more pieces of floor covering to the design in order to achieve the desirable shapes, lines, and colors of the desired pattern. As it is well known to one familiar in the art of applying decorative patterns to floor coverings, a relatively narrow and exceptionally smooth groove is required between adjacent edges of the pieces of linoleum to achieve a structurally sound and visually appealing seam. The groove receives hot melt glue from a conventional heat welder that, once hardened, provides a structurally ample join between adjacent edges of linoleum. Prior to heat welding, a well executed smooth and even groove between adjacent edges of linoleum results to a visually satisfying, precise, and desirable final design. Likewise, a poorly cut, choppy, and uneven groove results in a visually unsatisfying, sloppy, and undesirable final design.
A hand groover is one conventional tool in the art for cutting grooves between adjacent pieces of linoleum and sheet vinyl. While it is sufficient for rough cuts, a hand groover requires the craftsmanship of a highly skilled artisan for complex, non-linear designs or final cuts. Such skill takes years to master. Even so, a hand groover frequently leaves undesirable rough edges in the groove, particularly in linoleum which is often stiff and brittle. Such rough edges result in a sloppy and unacceptable final design. Pattern designs requiring high quality and extensive cuts require costly training to produce cuts at an acceptable level. The labor cost of a highly skilled artisan, coupled with the time and patience of using a hand groover are undesirable disadvantages of a present method for creating designs.
Resort has been made to routing machines that help speed the ability to make grooves. However, conventional portable routing machines are designed to cut only linear patterns or very obtuse curves. The conventional portable routing machine precludes the numerous tight and non-linear curves that today's design projects require. Conventional portable routing machines are also very expensive and add undesirable overhead costs.
An alternative approach is to use a stationary routing machine connected to AutoCAD software. However, this type of machine is very expensive and too large to be moved to and from job sites. Further, the costs and time associated with shipping the finished materials to a job site add undesirable overhead to the finished project. In addition, on-site modifications to a design may conflict with a cut already executed off-site and often cannot easily be done.